Brycen has been doing a great job of communicating more through his actions for what he wants! A good example today is that he wanted to watch a video during rest time and I got busy in the kitchen and forgot to start it for him after laying his sister down. In the past, he would get upset and just yell until I figured out what was wrong. Today, he nicely brought the DVD remote to me in the kitchen and when I asked him if he wanted to start his video, he said "sss" (his approximation for yes) right away and ran back into the living room! I was so proud of him and he was so smart with bringing me the remote to tell me what he wanted.
We've also noticed more signing during his therapy and at home, as well as increased sounds when he is trying to imitate a word. The speech therapist has noticed he is attempting to sign "help" while also saying "ep" and wanted me to check with the speech therapist at the school to see if they have been working more on this. He is so much more consistent with this than he was several months ago!
During Occupational Therapy, they have been attempting some very basic music therapy through head phones. He refused to wear the headphones before this and would typically throw them down. They decided to use his favorite toy in the room to help with this which is a mechanical Cookie Monster that opens it's mouth for Brycen to put a cookie in and then he closes it and says stuff like "yum, yum. Me like cookie." Brycen LOVES this! The speech therapist uses this toy to get him to ask for more cookies to feed Cookie Monster...and now they are using Cookie Monster to demonstrate to Brycen how to wear the head phones.
On the 3rd session of doing this earlier this week, Brycen grabbed the headphones off of Cookie's head and put them right onto his with no prompts!! Then they would take turns the rest of the time and it got to the point that Brycen wore the headphones for about 30-45 seconds! That is huge progress for him...and he didn't even seem to mind the music that was playing through them. I'm not quite sure what this music is supposed to do but I think it's supposed to help with desensitizing his ears since he is afraid of loud noises like alarms, hair dryers, and vacuum cleaners.
Anyway, that pretty much summarizes what we have been noticing the last few weeks with Brycen. Slow but steady wins the race!!!
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller
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Autism and Our Family
"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
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